Honestly, I’m not sure if Monkey Yoga is an actual, recognized practice, or just some catchy thing that a yoga studio in Oakland, CA came up with to get students to come in and try something fairly new and challenging out, yet still get their body stretched and limber like traditional yoga does.

Monkey yoga, which I tried when I was out in California, is a sort of fusion of regular yoga and cardio moves, so it gives you that great yoga relaxation and stretching experience, but it also keeps you on your toes like Ashtanga yoga does, while conditioning your heart aerobically with moves that sort of mimic a monkey’s moves at times (which is I believe where the name partly comes from perhaps).

So, as I mentioned in my last post, I went out to Berkeley, CA to visit my sister recently. One of the things we did that she had been wanting me to try since she started it just a few months ago, was a martial art/dance type of practice called Capoeira. I had never heard of this practice until my sister told me about it. That’s the advantage of having a sibling that lives somewhere more cultural and up on certain things, you actually get to hear about these things sooner rather than later!

So I’m back from visiting my sister in California, Berkeley to be more specific, the land of forgetting about your troubles, sipping on lattes and smoothies and eating organic foods as well as awesome cuisine at the many different restaurants in town.  I also got to do yoga and try something I had never tried before called Capoeira, which is a Brazilian art form of dance and marital arts.

That one was a real eye opener to the different ways your body needs to be in shape in order to be balanced, agile and able to defend yourself, since part of the art is self defense.  Although most of it that I observed is showmanship and fun self expression.

Oy, if this isn’t a sign of the times we live in, then I don’t know what is.  We all know, and are bombarded with, the grim news that US citizens are some of the most overweight and out of shape there are. As is that isn’t enough, we also hear about how a lot of weight and fitness related diseases and disorders there are, and how they magically all seem to be rising as well. Well, it is not coincidence, and being unfit and not getting exercise increases the likelihood of everything from cancer and depression to diabetes and high blood pressure.

Hmm, this may soon be something you see a few people at the ol’ office using – or not. When I first read about this, I thought it sounded like quite a fad, and also I thought that it really might contribute to back pain if used improperly, but now I sort of think it’s a nice novel idea for helping to train and tone your core (your abs) while you’re sitting down for long periods of time.

I stumbled across this very interesting story on a new intriguing piece of fitness equipment that you can actually ride outside just like you can ride a bike, only with less friction on your knee joints, just like an elliptical machine. It’s basically a hybrid of a bicycle and an elliptical trainer.  You can ride it around on sidewalks and on the road, just like you would a normal bike, and you can also get up to quite a nice speed on it.

I have definitely seen the light when it comes to the benefits of interval training over long, hard workouts where you don’t really break at all, but instead, either keep up an intensity that is very high the whole time, or keep up a medium type of intensity the entire time.

I feel, at the end of a 27 minute interval workout, like I really just worked out for an hour, and yet, I didn’t waste all that time that I would have had I been going at a steady pace. I also like the results that interval training gives me a whole lot better than what my normal gym routine used to consist of on the elliptical machine or the recumbent bike, depending on what I was doing that day.

Yoga has many health benefits which become apparent to a person after they have been practicing for a while. I myself don’t get to do it as often as I’d like – about once a week. But I find that when I’m practicing it more, I feel more balanced, like I have a center that I can come back to time and time again, that will help me find inner peace and also help stretch  my muscles, keep me limber as I age, and improve my mood, my health and my ability to cope properly with stress and anxiety.

I’ve been a bit obsessed with plank exercises as of late. Why, you ask? Well, because I find they are one of the most effective exercises to not only tone and define and sculpt the abdominal area, including the obliques, but they also tone the arms, legs and back while toning other trouble areas as well. They are kind of an all in one exercise for your body. They really test the boundaries of your strength too, as they are one of the hardest poses that you can put yourself in for any extended period of time.